Practice singing scales. This can help you both improve your control over your voice and help you learn to read music. Scales can be thought of as runs of notes that sound pleasant together and produce a certain effect. For example, the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A and B) produces a delightful sound in the key of C. Sing "Doh re mi fa sol la ti doh" (the final "doh," representing a higher version of the first, or root, note) when performing scales.
Plot the scales you are singing on a musical staff. Understand the basics of reading music before you do this. Draw a series of five horizontal lines to make a musical staff. At the beginning of the staff, draw either a treble clef (which looks like a "g") or a bass clef (that looks like a reversed "c") to identify the notes that fall on the lines and in the spaces. On a treble clef, the bottom line represents E, and on a bass clef, the bottom line represents G. Working upwards, the lines on a treble clef staff represent the notes E, G, B, D and F and the spaces represent the notes F, A, C and E. On the bass clef, the lines represent G, B, D, F and A, and the spaces represent A, C, E and G. Draw notes on the relevant positions on the staff to plot your scale musically.
Practice breathing techniques for singing. Breathe in so that your stomach extends before your chest. Breathe out from your stomach first. Singers breathe in this way because it uses the diaphragm before the chest muscles, and the diaphragm is easier to control than the chest muscles. Learn the four stages of breathing whilst singing. First, breathe in using the method just described and then suspend your breathing as you prepare to control your voice. Control your exhalation as you begin to sing and then find time to recover before you start again.
Use websites such as Vocalist, Become a Singing Master and Discover a Hobby (see Resources) to find free vocal training. These websites feature a variety of tips and tricks to help aspiring vocalists improve their voice. Many different techniques can be used to improve your singing, such as posture, enunciation, expression, speech level singing and projection.
Practice reading music. Using your basic knowledge of the positions of notes on a staff, you can learn to decipher a piece of music, and therefore read sheet music that may have been originally designed for another instrument. Practice your scales to improve, bearing in mind the positions the notes occupy on the musical staff. Use a website such as Data Dragon to find out about the different note values (see Resources). Notes without stems are whole notes, which must be held for an entire bar. Notes with a stem but a hollow dot are referred to as half notes, and they take up half of a 4/4 bar of music.